The Wanted’s Max George gives health update: I’m hoping I will need a pacemaker
By Charlotte McLaughlin, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
The Wanted singer Max George has given a health update, saying he is “hoping” the doctors will undertake a medical procedure to give him a pacemaker following him having heart issues.
In a post to Instagram on Thursday, the 36-year-old explained that he went to hospital after feeling “really unwell” and added that he needed “a lot more tests” to determine “what surgery I will need to get me back on my feet”.
On Saturday, George shared an series of Instagram videos to his stories from his hospital bed, in which he said: “So latest is that 100 per cent I’m going to have a little friend put in here (while pointing at his chest) at some point.
“I’ve got an issue with the bottom part of my heart, it’s called a block. The tricky bit is what I have put in because until I have further tests we don’t know what caused it.”
He added that it is still “a bit of a mystery really, but that’s the hard bit”, and the doctors have “cancelled out alcohol” as he has been sober for four-and-a-half years.
George added: “My heart rate is really, really low, which they’re monitoring 24/7, everyone’s been amazing.
“But the waiting bit is tough. It’s just one of them things unfortunately. Whatever I get, I’ve got to get on with it. We’re hoping (for a) pacemaker, a pacemaker is good.”
The implanted devices, which regulate heart rhythm, have saved countless lives by generating an electric current.
Tom Parker, who also rose to fame in the 2010s with the boy band along with George, died in 2022 at the age of 33 after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.
As well as a string of hits with The Wanted, George has also appeared in US musical series Glee, and competed on Strictly Come Dancing, where he got to know his future girlfriend – former EastEnders star Maisie Smith – in 2020.
Smith, 23, and George have previously said that romantic sparks only began to fly in 2022.
